Nick Kurtz Joins Elite Company with Sliver Slugger Win

Kurtz is also the fourth straight rookie to take home a Silver Slugger at their position, with Julio Rodríguez (2022), Gunnar Henderson (2023), Jackson Merrill (2024) also winning. This is a testament to the youth movement in the game, with players coming up from the minors—and in some cases straight out of college—more ready to compete at the big-league level.

Kurtz has also become the centerpiece of the A's offense, and will be leading a group of sluggers in Green and Gold in 2026. Below is the press release sent out by the A's. This latest award will certainly make it more difficult to sign him to an extension this winter, too.

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz has been named a 2025 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger award winner. Kurtz is the first A’s rookie to win the award and joins Jason Giambi (2001) and Mark McGwire (1992 & 1996) as the only A’s first basemen to win the award.

This marks the first time A’s players have won a Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award in consecutive seasons since Giambi and Eric Chavez (2002). Kurtz is the first rookie first baseman to win the award since José Abreu in 2014.

Kurtz, 22, batted .290 with 36 home runs, 86 RBI, and a 1.002 OPS in 117 games played, including 112 games at first base. He led American League first basemen in home runs and OPS, ranked second in extra-base hits (64), and runs scored (90), and third in RBI and walks (63).

His 36 home runs were the second most in a season by an A’s rookie, trailing only Mark McGwire’s 49 home runs in 1987. On July 25 at Houston, Kurtz went a perfect 6-for-6, tying the MLB record for home runs (4), extra-base hits (5), and total bases in a game (19). He won both American League Rookie of the Month as well as American League Player of the Month for July.

The Silver Slugger Award is the top offensive award in Major League Baseball, with the season’s best players at each position selected in a vote by MLB coaches and managers in their respective leagues.

Each team receives four votes: the manager and three coaches of their choice. Votes are based on a combination of offensive statistics including OBP, OPS, OPS+, home runs, hits, RBI and batting average as well as the managers’ and coaches’ general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value. Louisville Slugger has presented the Silver Slugger Awards annually since 1980.